Affirmative action does not exacerbate underrepresentation in employment sectors at all; if anything it improves representation, as more minority students are given a chance at completing college, which changes the makeup of eligible employees towards a more equitable mixture.

And I feel the need to remind you of slavery as you do seem wholly ignorant of its existence and further relevance to this topic. My citations are not generic "Slavery existed" citations, they're "slavery existed and to this very day has a gigantic impact on black people in academia. citations.

You are wrong, and harmfully so. You can continue to be wrong, but as long as you are, you also continue to be harmful.

If this were the case, the study gap would have disappeared decades ago. But it persists nonetheless. On second thought, you're probably right but not in the way you thik: racial discrimination creates a lowered expectations for underrepresented groups and they put in effort accordingly.

> Affirmative action does not exacerbate underrepresentation in employment sectors at all; if anything it improves representation, as more minority students are given a chance at completing college, which changes the makeup of eligible employees towards a more equitable mixture.

Did you read the paper I linked? Probably not given that you responded 6 minutes after I posted the comment. Racial discrimination does increase representation, but it shifts the concentration of affected groups out of STEM and into less demanding majors. Before you try to blame this on racism inside the university, understand that the likelihood for students to graduate in STEM is the same across all races for the same level of academic preparedness. An Asian, white, Black, etc. student with 700s on their SAT are equally likely to graduate in STEM, as are students with 600s and 500s. An Asian student and a Black student with 700s on their SAT are just as likely to graduate in STEM. A white and Black student with 500s are less likely to graduate than the former two, but equally likely relative to each other. But due to affirmative action, there's a considerably greater share of black students in the latter situation. Worse yet, since these students often try and fail to graduate in their preferred field they take longer to graduate and come away with more student debt.

> You are wrong, and harmfully so. You can continue to be wrong, but as long as you are, you also continue to be harmful.

And I would say the exact same thing to you. You're wrong and harmfully so. The soft bigotry of low expectations is more subtle, but more insidious. Instead of pushing underrepresented students to invest more time into a academics and compete with their peers as equals, you're advocating that we simply lower standards. You can continue to be wrong, but as long as you are, you also continue to be harmful.

I always find it funny when people talk about "lowered expectations" Do you realize what you reveal about your own views when you say that? You're telling the world how you see minority groups as "lesser"; the only way they can succeed, according to you, is with the help being provided. How completely wrong and wildly ignorant of the actual goals and effects of affirmative action.

I've read the paper you linked before you linked it. I'm generally versed in this topic. The Brookings paper is relatively famous, but it's extremely narrowly focused, and doesn't even remotely conclude what you're trying to say here.

Ironically though, I gave you a dozen papers/articles to read, and you replied nearly instantly. This feels like an instance of projection; where you didn't read anything I have given you, but are not accusing me of doing what you yourself perpetrated.

Not only are you wrong, you're alone. Nearly nobody agrees with you who has worked in this space, the consensus is not on your side. Which is good for me and the push for equity, but is tiresome, cumbersome, and harmful in the meantime.

Actually, you're the one that's more alone in your support for racial discrimination than I am. The majority of Black people (62%) oppose the use of race in university admissions: https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/02/25/most-americ...

I find it odd that you don't even know the views of the people you're supposedly supporting. Nearly two thirds of Black people disagree with you. Yet you claim I'm alone in my views despite being in agreement with the majority of Black Americans.

> I always find it funny when people talk about "lowered expectations" Do you realize what you reveal about your own views when you say that? You're telling the world how you see minority groups as "lesser";

I agree: that's exactly why racial discrimination is counterproductive. Do you not see the message you're sending when you expect an Asian student to be in the top 5% and a Black student to be in the top 50% for the same role? Do you realize what this says about your own views when this kind of scheme is implemented? And yes, disparities of that magnitude are what universities are applying: https://www.economist.com/united-states/2018/06/23/a-lawsuit...

And you haven't given me a single paper. Changes are you're mistaking me with another commenter: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34673386

What MLK has to say on this topic:

> “Whenever the issue of compensatory treatment for the Negro is raised, some of our friends recoil in horror. The Negro should be granted equality, they agree; but he should ask nothing more. On the surface, this appears reasonable, but it is not realistic.”

> “A society that has done something special against the Negro for hundreds of years must now do something special for the Negro.”

> “A section of the white population, perceiving Negro pressure for change, misconstrues it as a demand for privileges rather than as a desperate quest for existence. The ensuing white backlash intimidates government officials who are already too timorous.”

I am not alone. You are, full stop.

And you found my comment almost instantly. Comments are not "to" any individual or person, they're free to be read by anyone. I haven't confused anything, I simply understand how HN works.

It creates mismatch. The result is predictable. The "beneficiaries" of affirmative action have lower GPAs and are less likely to complete STEM majors because they are outmatched by students for whom the admissions bar was not bent.

Does it increase representation? At a point in time, yes. But if the goal is to get folks into the executive suite, affirmative action may actually be a step backward.